MILP models and metaheuristic for balancing and sequencing of mixed-model two-sided assembly lines

Mixed-model assembly lines are becoming increasingly popular due to flexibility of producing customised products. In a mixed-model assembly line, line balancing and model sequencing problems are tightly interrelated and very important for efficiency. This paper proposes a new assembly line configuration based on paced mixed-model two-sided assembly lines where balancing and sequencing problems are considered simultaneously. Minimal work has been reported considering both problems simultaneously for this type of assembly line configuration. Two mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) models are developed and a restarted SA algorithm with new encoding, decoding and neighbourhood procedures is developed. The parameters of the proposed algorithm are selected based on a statistical technique and the performance of it is tested on a set of new benchmark problems. The computational results demonstrate the effectiveness of the MILP models and the high efficiency of the proposed algorithm. The proposed algorithm outperforms the comparative original SA algorithm. [Received 22 July 2016; Revised 1 December 2016; Accepted 14 February 2017]